Best Christmas Present

What is the best Christmas present you have ever gotten?

One Christmas eve when I was younger, I opened a present from my mom that she had given to all the children. It was a journal of one of my ancestors. My inside reaction was, “Mom… I know you spent a lot of time making this… but why?!” I did not read the journal, and I think most of my siblings did not either. I did not see it as a very good present, but now that mindset has completely changed.

What is the greatest type of present that one can receive or give? Christ tells us this by commanding us in twelve different places in the Old and New testament, Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven. Boyd K. Packer said “When we research our own lines we become interested in more than just names or the number of names going through the temple. Our interest turns our hearts to our fathers—we seek to find them and to know them and to serve them. In doing so we store up treasures in heaven.” There are four ways that we can give the greatest gift for Christmas. Taking names to the temple, reading stories of our ancestors, writing in our journal, and indexing.

By finding a name and taking it to the temple, we are giving a Christmas gift to our ancestors or our cousins that are deceased. They have waited a long time to be able to leave spirit prison, and by doing their work we are freeing them. Evidence of how grateful they are for our gifts to them is Brigham Young saying that in the millennium, those that we did missionary work for our family history work will fall and kiss our feet with gratitude. Doing so brings great joy to us. Wilford Woodruff said ”If the veil were lifted off the face of the Latter-day Saints and they could see and know the things of God as they do who are laboring for the salvation of the human family who are in the spirit world …, this whole people, with very few, if any, exceptions, would lose all interest in the riches of the world, and instead thereof their whole desire and labors would be directed to redeem their dead.” I testify of the joy that comes from participating in this work. Ever since I learned how to find names, I feel protected from sin. I do believe that we receive protection from those whom we help in the temple. Joseph F. Smith said “When messengers are sent to minister to the inhabitants of this earth, they are not strangers, but from among our kindred, friends, and fellow-beings and fellow-servants… Our fathers and mothers, brothers, sisters and friends who have passed away on this earth having been faithful, and worthy to enjoy these rights and privileges, may have a mission given to them to visit their relatives and friends upon the earth again, bringing from the divine Presence messages of love, of warning, or reproof and instruction, to those whom they had learned to love in the flesh.” Therefore, our ancestors are also anxious to give us gifts.

Our ancestors indeed are anxious to help us, and they have already left behind ways to do so. The stories that they can leave with us are far greater treasures than we could imagine. This is exactly what my mom gave me for Christmas. It was also a gift from my ancestor. Before my mission, I was only concerned about taking names to the temple and not reading stories to actually get to know them, but now I focus a lot more on the stories. They are not only inspiring, but they can give us real power. While in the mission, a member called us to come and give a blessing of healing to her neighbor. They were not members but had met with missionaries years ago and remembered that we give blessings. When we got there, she explained that she was having frequent migraines that would last up to fifteen hours, and it had been happening for a month to that point. We taught them the gospel of Christ, and then we asked which of us three (we were a companionship of three) she would like to give her the blessing. She chose me. Fear crept into my heart. I had never given a blessing in a scenario like this. It had always been to heal someone from the flu or something similar that was likely to get better anyways. This was a serious problem she was having, and if she wasn’t healed it could affect her testimony of the church. As I began to doubt and wonder what I could say to make it work out, I remembered a story of my great grandmother. She had spinal meningitis when she was two. At the time, the disease was fatal. Only two or three of every hundred would live, and if you lived you would never walk again. She had slipped into a coma, so her dad called the elders who came and healed her completely with a priesthood blessing. People came from all over to see the girl who lived. With that thought in mind, I had the power to find the strength needed to heal this woman from her ordeal. I put my hands on her head and promised her complete healing. Two weeks later we heard that she had not had a single migraine since. Without having read that history of my great-grandma, I would not have healed that lady because I would not have had the faith to do so. Our ancestors are anxious to help us. Elder John H. Groberg said, “If we want our problems to be solved, one of the surest ways of doing that is to search for our past, for therein we receive strength, guidance, and understanding … We can receive strength and help from those who have gone on before. To raise our families today, we need to do family research and genealogy.” Therefore, while needing an answer to a prayer, consult your family histories as well as scriptures.

If some of my ancestors had not written in their journals, I would not have those stories to read. Therefore, we should also write in our journals as doing so would be giving a Christmas gift to our descendants. Some of us may consider that our life is not exciting enough to have people want to learn about it, but I guarantee that your descendants would be interested in much of what you are doing. Spencer W. Kimball said “Get a notebook, a journal that will last through all time, and maybe the angels may quote from it for eternity. Begin today and write in it your goings and comings, your deepest thoughts, your achievements, and your failures, your associations and your triumphs, your impressions and your testimonies. Remember, the Savior chastised those who failed to record important events. … This is what the Lord has commanded and those who keep a personal journal are more likely to keep the Lord in remembrance their daily lives.” When he says that the angels will quote from it for eternity, it refers to the fact that our stories can help our descendants. My great-grandma was able to bring her story to my remembrance just when I needed it as I talked about in the previous paragraph. The angels will quote from our stories for eternity to our descendants to help them exactly in the circumstances that they need. Our stories are like scripture to them because they can receive inspiration and strength from the stories just like they would from the scriptures. Christ also taught this principle. 3 Nephi 27:26 says that “All things are written by the Father”. Therefore, God has set the example. Let us write in our journals.

By indexing, we are giving a Christmas gift to other individuals currently living. When a record is indexed, it makes family history information available for others to search and find their ancestors. This also gives them an opportunity to give gifts to their ancestors like we can. There are many stories of people who could not find any information on family search for quite some time, and then one day the information was randomly there thanks to indexing. Without indexing, family history work would not be possible. Indexing has been a huge blessing to me this past month. I indexed a batch every day for a total of over 2100 names indexed. This month has been one of my happiest ever, and I know it is a direct result of the indexing. It has brought the spirit to my life every day and caused me to be happy through all the problems that I have.

That is one of the greatest things about family history work. While we are trying to give gifts to others, it really is just giving gifts to ourselves. This is God’s work. Whether we participate or not, it is still going to happen. Therefore, we participate and are blessed for it. It really is the greatest Christmas gift that we can give to other people, but it turns into the greatest gift that we are receiving at the same time that we give it.